Afghanistan Cricket - A fascinating underdog story

When Rajasthan Royals took on the Chennai Super Kings in the final of inaugural season of IPL, everyone wanted them to win the match and take the trophy home. Super Kings high on star value stormed into the finals while Royals did the unthinkable under the charismatic leadership of Shane Warne.

Before the start of tournament no one, absolutely no one would have put their money on the Royals. As the tournament progressed Royal went on a rampage, stunned one and all by astonishingly making their way into the finals and then ultimately emerging as the deserving winners.

It was probably one of the greatest underdog stories in the history of modern day Cricket.

There is something about the underdogs. Be it in sports or any other field, every one love them. We all love to see them do the unthinkable. It may be because each one of us had been an underdog somewhere at some time.

At the dawn of 21^st century Afghanistan was in total turmoil. The idea of Afghanistan playing an international cricket match was as inconceivable as a Cricket World Cup without India. But as they say nothing is permanent and things changes, sometimes dramatically!

In the year 2001, ICC awarded Afghanistan the status of an “Affiliate Member”. Since then their rise in the world of cricket has been nothing but extra ordinary.

The cricketers in the Afghan team are mostly born in the refugee camps. They picked up cricket at the camps. They didn’t have pitches or any basic facility at home yet that didn’t stop them from chasing their dreams.

Afghanistan were languishing at Fifth Division of World Cricket League when their travelled to Pakistan in 2001 for their first tour. Nine years later, Afghanistan qualified for the World T20 in the Caribbean Islands when they piped UAE in a nail biter in the qualifying round.

Though they lost both of their matches at the main event to the powerhouses of cricket India and South Africa but they won the hearts of cricket fans world over.

There have been teams like Kenya, Netherlands, Canada, Scotland, UAE, and Namibia who have been playing cricket for years. The rise and fall of Kenya, once the most promising Associate nation has been extra ordinary. Netherlands had been good only in patches while the other teams have never been able to push for that extra mile at the World level.

In present scenario, when ICC is pushing its weight to make cricket a global sport, Afghanistan is definitely helping the matter by making the right moves. They are easily the most improved team outside the Test playing nations (taking nothing away from Ireland).

Earlier this year, ICC allocated Afghanistan cricket board an assistance of $422,000 and couple of months later they were awarded with a membership for Associate nations. It clearly indicates the belief of ICC in Afghanistan Cricket and progress made by them.

Mohammad Nabi, Navroz Mangal, Mohammad Shahzad , Shapoor Zadran are already big stars in their country and who could forget Mohammad Shahzad’s helicopter shot against India in the World T20 last year?

Cricket needs more teams like Afghanistan. Their story should inspire the generations to come. After what people of Afghanistan had went through, this bunch of few passionate players are solely responsible for bringing the joy on their faces. They are nothing sort of heroes in their country land.

Having narrowly missed a berth in ICC World Cup 2011, Afghanistan did not want this to happen again. And today they made it to ICC World Cup 2015 and how. They thrashed Kenya by 7 wickets in the qualifiers and booked their ticket to take on the best in the business.

It is time for people of Afghanistan to sink in the success of their team.

The expectation from them would be at a all-time high now. They should find a way to build around this success. But leave that for some other time. As a fan of this great game, it is time to rejoice and celebrate. I have been following Afghanistan Cricket for some time and now they have given me every reason to follow them even more closely. I would love to see them giving the big ticket teams a run for their money in the 2015 World Cup.